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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 12, 1986)
News of Chernobyl mishap resurrects fear at home When news of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident reached my front doorstep, the first thing I did was telephone home to see if my mother had been adversely affected. Not that she lives anywhere near the Soviet Union, or is par ticularly susceptible to low doses of radiation in the at mosphere. but because she has a long-standing phobic, belief that her demise will come at the hands of a nuclear power plant accident. Such a phobia is rare in most parts of the world, hut in the neighborhood where I grew up. it became a common, although underlying, fear. The center piece of my old neighborhood is the Trojan nuclear power plant near Rainier. The house where my parents live, and where I liv ed before moving to Eugene, Is literally in the shadow of Tro jan's cooling tower. If you lived in my neighborhood, it made no dif ference whether you were a sup porter or an opponent of nuclear power. There are some of each •COUPON" I 1 I I Let’s Do Lunch Pizza Bagel Small Salad Small Coke Why settle for than the BEST!?! TRACK TOWN PIZZA 1809 Franklin Blvd. 484-2799 or carryout •COUPON in that small community, but nobody made much noise. Nobody in kainier over made much noise. Political views on nuclear power aside, Trojan had, has and will always have an effect on every citizen in tha* small Community Reporter’s notebook The effects aren't always bad. The money generated by Trojan helped build the new high school from which my class was the third to graduate, and the first to graduate with the class song "Whitebird.” A beautiful park with man made lakes surrounds the plant, and creates a fine community picnic and recreation area whom my friends and I used to go ride bikes, play softball, boat, ice-skate in the wintertime and swim in the summer. That is, it was a fine recrea tion area until the day Mike swallowed some of the water while swimming in an un naturally warm area of the lake. He became violently ill and was hospitalized, forcing him to miss the first week of football practice. After this incident, health of ficials posted signs around the lake that said, "This water is not healthy. Swim at your own risk.” Of course, news travels fast in a small town — everybody knew of the incident. ff^XsorWf. «$>**$£$£t*?" B'scoiW'®0 fory°u and the urge to swim in the Tro jan lakes would have I men quelled without the signs. Hut Trojan still had its other amenities. T h e r e was something about that unnatural ly warm water. The same water that made Mike so sick seemed to lie full of a kind of fish growing nutrient flatfish, bass and, of course, those ugly, uneatable carp grew to enor mous sizes and astounding numbers. Hut whatever made them grow so much also made them hard to catch. Maybe they were just too full of that warm, green stuff in the lake. After awhile, the lake became SO crowded with those giant fish, they started to stack up un til some were literally coming out of the water. On a warm day, it would look as if you could walk across the lake by stopping on the hacks of giant carp and not get wet ('.onvontional carp-catching means wouldn't work with these fish. Whatever was in that water made them not only big ger. but apparently smarter than the average carp. The park director used to catch some with a giant net to keep them from overpopulating the lakes. He said he used them for fer tilizer on his garden. I know be grew some pretty big cabbages. Another piece of great enter tainment (the value of entertain ment cannot be overemphasized in Rainier! was the Trojan visitors center Several amazing electronic exhibits and an am phitheater with movies gave visitors all the information they needed about nuclear power, A guided tour of the plant also was included After finishing the lour and view ing all of the exhibits in the center, visitors were required to take two tests before leaving The first tested visitors' absorp tion of knowledge alNiul nuclear power, That was the easy lest to pass. Thn second tost whs just us easy but a little more nerve racking. This tested visitors' ab sorption of radiation. After the tour, visitors were led through a counter machine to see if they had been exposed to excess amounts of radiation while on the tour. With fingers crossed, visitors walked through the machine while praying not to hour loud click ing noises increasing in tempo. Meanwhile, the smiling tour guide tells you that plant workers only1 get exposed to five rnrilognns more radiation a year than the averugo person gets from normal background rudiu-. tion. That is a real safe amount. I hear. Of course. Trojan does have some adverse effects. It makes people, like my mother, ner vous. Whenever a major disaster happens, people begin wondering whether they reallv like living so close to the plant, rvly parents haven't moved yet. but there have been some dose calls. Mount St. Helens. Three Mile Island, a chemical fire in kalama. Wash., across the Col umbia Rivet from Trojan all of these had my mother packing suitcases and planning In rendezvous with neighiairs at a later date in another state. Thn large steam cloud that rises almve tint (Doling tower is the subject ot many obscene comments on otherwise cloudless summer afternoons And llte loud warning sirens on telephone posts around the community are pretty un popular during emergency tests. (amorally, people just live there and don't pay too much attention to Trojan. I believe it's pretty safe "They" say there is no way a terrible accident could happen at Trojan like tint one al Chernobyl. Hot isn't that what people in Chnruohvl thought? By Chris Norred Rape workshop slated Statistics show that rape is the fastest growing crime in the U.S. today. One rape occurs every three minutes, and more than one-third of all women in this country will be sex ually assaulted or raped in their lifetimes. Causes ot sexual assault, psychological attitudes, and confronting and avoiding sexual assault w ill Ih? addressed at a Rape Awareness Workshop, co-sponsored by the Rape Crisis Network and Kugene Parks and Recreation, today from 7 to *t p m. at Sheldon Community Center. ■'Many of us (women) know what to do hut we cannot do it." says Nadia Telsey, director of the Rape Crisis Network Telsey says women traditionally have been trained into the “victim role.” This role causes women to wait to act in response to someone, fail to trust their intuitions and feel responsible for a sexual attack. Studies indicate that self-defense from rape or sexual assault can be possible ami effective. One such study fount! that the sooner a woman resisted during an attack, the greater the chance of escape. The Rape Awareness Workshop is free Interested per sons may register at the Sheldon Community Center or call <>87-5.121. small prices Paul's Hiey< It* Shop 2480 A ',4/ 01‘,S GHumpl)tcy ‘'Yogurt the °Muffins 844 Pearl St. Eugene 683-5978